Outdoor covered grills such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,530-E. J. Schlosser, June 12, 1984 are well known in the art. These are for exclusive use with charcoal briquettes as a fuel, and are difficult to transport and store because of their large kettle volume and awkward supporting bracket structure. Furthermore, these devices cannot be used over an open campfire when wood is available as a fuel.
Portable grills are available for exclusive use over open campfires such as those in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,604,884-B. Walker, July 29, 1952 and 4,117,825-T. A. Robertson, Oct. 3, 1978. These grills have some desirable features such as the ability to mount the cooking surface at various levels to adapt to campfire conditions, the portability features of being foldable and easily assemblable so that they can be compactly stored when not in use, and structure for straddling a campfire. However, these grills have disadvantageous features including that they cannot be used with charcoal fuel briquettes, are not able to cook food within a closed or partly closed compartment, and that after use, the stands cannot be stored or carried in an automobile, for example, without soiling adjacent surfaces with residue, grease and soot.
None of the prior art provides an outdoor portable cooking stand that can be used for various food cooking conditions including grilling, baking, frying, steaming, boiling and simmering.
Accordingly, it is an advantage of this invention to improve the state of the art by resolving the foregoing deficiencies and providing a multi-purpose portable outdoor cooking stand having advantageous features and operable over a wide range of cooking requirements for different foods and fuels.